Friday, March 25, 2022

On law and its adversarialism.

When stuff gets legal, it gets really unpleasant really fast, when you try to protect yourself.

In my one healthcare class, the one instructor had some different class gaps that created risks where I needed to formalize stuff in writing, and like right away I could see that their lawyers were ghostwriting emails for her -- the stuff had some different exculpating factual distortions, and omitted some crucial context, and since you can't let stuff like that stand, you have to respond right away and point it out, lest they twist the paper trail and pretend stuff didn't happen and even maybe tip all of the legal liability onto you.

Only, once you do that, you become a threat, all because of the situation that *they* created.

Then, they try to explain away your response by saying that you're overreacting, try to put you in your place to delegitimize your concerns, etc.

Just what a f*cking mess...  I hate situations like that, but once they go there, you have to do what you have to do, it's all about protecting yourself.

Years ago I had read that law courts tend to black vs. white presentations of situations because of the adversarial nature of the courtroom (I think this was an aside about Greco-Roman rhetorical training and how that informed ancient historiography, which isn't as nuanced as historians' work now)...  

Anyhoo, that **really** is true.  You martial your forces and state your case, and acknowledge and push back where needed.

"You're really cutting a swath there, honey," my mother was like.  "I don't think they were ready for you."

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